3H 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



He repeated this story minutely and with great persistence, 

 notwithstanding the postal authorities denied having given him the 

 letter, in the face of the asseverations of the prefects that there 

 were not thirty anarchists in Brescia, where he was in correction, 

 and although all the facts were against him. Observe that he 

 was in prison, that he had been there three months, and that 

 he was told he would be likely to stay there as long as he adhered 

 to his story. 



Efforts to account for the phenomenon were unsuccessful, be- 

 cause his friends and relatives made no mention of any traces of 

 insanity. Light began to break upon the case when it was learned 

 that he had attempted suicide, a few years before, in grief at the 

 death of his mother, and also that on the day before he gave him- 

 self up he had stolen a small sum from his drunken brother. 

 These, however, were only distant hints. The matter was fully 

 explained when, after he had drunk a litre of wine in the prison, 

 he began to exclaim, " Viva Vanarchio! " (Hurrah for anarchy!), 

 " Morie al Be!'' (Death to the king!), to kiss a dagger, to break 

 various things against imaginary guards, and, after a short period 

 of quiet, to swear and forswear himself that his companions had 



done what he had done, that 

 they had shouted for anarchy, 

 had broken the vases, and had 

 desired to kill the king. 



This cleared up the matter at 

 once for me, but I wished to 

 complete the elucidation with 

 an experiment. I began by giv- 

 ing him ten, then twenty, then 

 tliirty, then forty grammes of al- 

 cohol, up to eighty. I observed 

 that liis personality began to 

 change after forty grammes. 

 He became somewhat insolent 

 and suspicious, and had vague 

 delirious imaginings of persecu- 

 tions. When invited to sing 

 anarchistic songs he refused, evidently fearing to compromise 

 himself, but sang them voluntarily in an undertone. When 

 the dose of alcohol was increased to ninety grammes his personal- 

 ity seemed immediately to undergo a full change; his touch be- 

 came twice as fine (three millimetres), and his visual field increased 

 threefold; he declared that there was a spy around. When 

 put into his cell he sang annrcliistic hymns, threatened death to 



Kavachol. 



